[Python-Dev] subprocess not escaping "^" on Windows

[Guido van Rossum]

On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 8:17 AM, Christian Tismer <tismer at stackless.com>
wrote:

> As a side note: In most cases where shell=True is found, people
> seem to need evaluation of the PATH variable. To my understanding,
>
> >>> from subprocess import call
> >>> call(("ls",))
>
> works in Linux, but (with dir) not in Windows. But that is misleading
> because "dir" is a builtin command but "ls" is not. The same holds for
> "del" (Windows) and "rm" (Linux).
>
> So I thought that using shell=True was a good Thing on windows,
> but actually it is the start of all evil.
> Using regular commands like "git" works fine on Windows and Linux
> without the shell=True parameter.
>
> Perhaps it would be a good thing to emulate the builtin programs
> in python by some shell=True replacement (emulate_shell=True?)
> to match the normal user expectations without using the shell?
>

That feels like a terrible idea to me. How do you define "normal user
expectations" here? If people want shell builtins they should just use
shell=True. (Also note IIUC there are several quite different shells
commonly used on Windows, e.g. PowerShell.)

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)
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